Overhaul in the apartment involves a complete replacement of communications and finishing materials. Old floors are also recommended to be dismantled and replaced. Replacing the wooden floor in the apartment, you can do it yourself, without resorting to the services of finishers. In this case, you can be 100% sure of the quality of the work done. The whole process can be divided into two stages: preparatory and main. To make it more clear, you should dwell on each in more detail.
Training
Floor replacement begins with the preparation of an estimate and the purchase of the necessary material. First you need to calculate the area of \u200b\u200bthe room. It is best to arm yourself with a tape measure and measure the area of \u200b\u200bthe room yourself, not trusting the technical passport of the apartment. After that, the resulting numbers must be multiplied by the thickness of the board. This will allow you to calculate the required cubic capacity of lumber. Having decided on the quantity, you can go to the construction market. To replace the wooden floor in the apartment, some boards will not be enough. You will also need waterproofing, baseboards and floor logs.
For the manufacture of the floor, there are two types of lumber:
- Cutting board. Classic board, processed from the front side. This material is used mainly for private households.
- Floor rail. This is the best option for apartment buildings. Rails are easy to install with your own hands. Parts of the floor are fastened together in a lock (groove-protrusion), which greatly simplifies the work.
In both cases, it is recommended to give preference to pine lumber. The same applies to lags. Lag is a beam with a section of 50x50 or 50x70, they are installed on a concrete pavement.
To install a wooden floor in an apartment, you will need skirting boards. They come in two varieties: plastic and wood. A plastic baseboard is much more practical in terms of do-it-yourself installation. In addition, it is more durable and stronger than wooden counterparts.
Advice! To install plastic skirting boards in the apartment, you will have to buy an additional element (internal and external corners) and self-tapping screws for fastening to the wall.
Regardless of the type of material, skirting boards have a standard size of 2.5 meters. Keep this in mind when making your budget.
For waterproofing, absolutely any insulating material with water-repellent properties is suitable. The most practical and inexpensive is the usual roofing material. The waterproofing is fastened with self-tapping screws or dowel-nails.
Mounting process
Do-it-yourself installation of wooden floors in an apartment begins with the dismantling of the old coating. To do this, you need a small crowbar or mount. Dismantling the old floor begins with the plinth. After that, the old wooden floors are torn off along with the logs. The old waterproofing must also be thrown away.
After that, you can proceed with the installation. First of all, it is necessary to note the level at which the new floor will be located.
Advice! If the replacement of the coating occurs throughout the apartment, it is better to do the work in stages. First, the floors in one room are dismantled. The mark of the new floor is carried out along the edge of the old one.
The mark can be applied with chalk or a marker on the wall of the room.
- So that the laid floors do not creak or sag, it is necessary to check the evenness of the floor slab. To do this, you can use a laser pointer or building level. If necessary, the floor slab is leveled with a cement-sand mortar or special linings.
- After leveling, a waterproofing layer is laid on the concrete base.
- Lags are laid. Doing it yourself is quite simple, the main thing is to accurately maintain the distance between the lags.The layout of the lag is as follows: between the extreme lags there should be no more than 30 centimeters, the distance between subsequent bars can vary from 50 to 60 centimeters.
Important! The logs should be positioned perfectly evenly, the location of the floor in the apartment will depend on this. Therefore, after installation, it is recommended to align the lags according to the level.
- Sharp side edges are recommended to be smoothed with a planer.
- You can proceed with the installation of a wooden floor. Boards should be laid "end-to-end", the gap between them should be absent or minimized. It is much easier to connect the sex slats with your own hands. They interlock with each other with a tongue-and-groove connection. For a more reliable connection, the slats are knocked down with a wooden hammer.
- After that, the boards can be attached to the logs with nails or self-tapping screws. Only the caps of the fastening material need to be bitten. The fact is that after installation, wooden floors are usually sanded, and protruding hats can damage the grinder.
- All gaps and scratches must be filled before sanding the floors. Putty needs time to dry, usually it takes no more than a day. The wooden floor in the apartment is recommended to be sanded twice: first with a large sandpaper, then with a fine one. After each pass, it is recommended to wipe the floors with a damp cloth.
- After grinding, the plinth is installed. Remember that this only applies to wood products. Wooden skirting boards are painted and varnished together with the floor. Plastic plinth is usually purchased and installed after finishing the floors.
Do-it-yourself finishing of the floor in the apartment
Wooden floors are usually painted or varnished. Despite the similarity of work processes, they are performed using different technologies.
- Painting. Floor painting begins with priming. To do this, get a primer for wooden surfaces. This means provides reliable adhesion of paint to the surface. After application, the primer must be allowed time to dry. This may take from 1 to 24 hours. Then you can start painting. Do it in several layers. Each subsequent layer is applied only after the previous one has dried. To evenly distribute the paint over the surface, it is recommended to use a paint roller.
- Applying varnish. Varnishing the floor in an apartment with your own hands is not as difficult as it seems at first glance. First, a preliminary layer is applied, it must dry for 12 hours, then it is processed with sandpaper and wiped with a damp cloth. After that, the floor is varnished again.
Important! It takes at least a week for the varnish to completely harden. Up to this point, you can not walk on the floor in heels, install massive things or move furniture. This will damage the coating.
The process of laying the floors in the apartment is not so complicated, so it is quite possible to do all the steps with your own hands.
Instead of a conclusion, here are some useful tips for beginners:
- work is recommended at room temperature;
- it is recommended to leave a small gap between the end of the board and the wall;
- when purchasing lumber, it is recommended to give preference to products that are impregnated with an antiseptic and non-combustible composition;
- if the floor in the apartment is varnished, it is better to purchase a polyurethane-based finishing material.
If all the work is done in accordance with the rules, the wooden floors in the apartment can last for decades.
